Hechos 17:27

27 Esto lo hizo Dios para que todos lo busquen y, aunque sea a tientas, lo encuentren. En verdad, él no está lejos de ninguno de nosotros,

Hechos 17:27 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 17:27

That they should seek the Lord
Or "God", as the Alexandrian copy and others, and the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read; their Creator, and kind Benefactor, and who has appointed their time of life, and their habitations for them; and this should engage them to seek to know him, who has done all this for them, and to fear and serve him, and to glorify his name:

if haply they might feel after him, and find him;
which shows, that though it is possible for men, by a contemplation of the perfections of God, visible in the works of creation and providence, so to find God, as to know that there is one, and that there is but one God, who has made all things; and so as to be convinced of the vanity and falsehood of all other gods, and to see the folly, wickedness, and weakness of idolatrous worship; yet, at the same time, it very strongly intimates, how dim and obscure the light of nature is; since those, who have nothing else to direct them, are like persons in the dark, who "feel" and grope about after God, whom they cannot see; and after all their search and groping, there is only an "haply", a peradventure, a may be, that they find him:

though he be not far from everyone of us;
not only by his omnipresence, and immensity, whereby he is everywhere; but by his power in supporting all in their being; and by his goodness in continually communicating the blessings of providence to them.

Hechos 17:27 In-Context

25 ni se deja servir por manos humanas, como si necesitara de algo. Por el contrario, él es quien da a todos la vida, el aliento y todas las cosas.

26 De un solo hombre hizo todas las naciones para que habitaran toda la tierra; y determinó los períodos de su historia y las fronteras de sus territorios.

27 Esto lo hizo Dios para que todos lo busquen y, aunque sea a tientas, lo encuentren. En verdad, él no está lejos de ninguno de nosotros,

28 “puesto que en él vivimos, nos movemos y existimos”. Como algunos de sus propios poetas griegos han dicho: “De él somos descendientes”.

29 »Por tanto, siendo descendientes de Dios, no debemos pensar que la divinidad sea como el oro, la plata o la piedra: escultura hecha como resultado del ingenio y de la destreza del ser humano.